It used to be that photos of celebrities without makeup were the stuff of gossip rags like the National Enquirer, Star Magazine and Us Weekly, which paraded them as banners of shame. Paparazzi would fetch upward of $15,000 for snaps of women sans their usual armor of foundation, blush, mascara, lipstick and so forth. But in recent times, the conversation has changed. Celebs — and brands like Dove and People magazine — have turned makeup-free moments into acts of rebellion, vulnerability and self-acceptance.

In a world where being a female celebrity — or, for that matter, female — seemingly invites unwanted appraisals of your appearance, A-listers now regularly choose to go barefaced. Particularly on their Instagram accounts. Some, like the iconic Jennifer Lopez, accompany these no-makeup moments with raw confessionals. “So this is what it’s like before the show,” shared the singer in a post preceding one of her recent Vegas performances. “I sit here, no hair, no makeup, no nothing, just trying to get mentally prepared to give you all I have.”

Others use the attention-grabbing photos to highlight the artifice of makeup — and dated societal beauty standards. “Its (sic) exhausting to be told what beauty should look like,” Cara Delevingne captioned a barefaced paparazzi snap of herself taken this past May, just after she’d shaved her head for a role. “Strip away the clothes, wipe off the make up (sic), cut off the hair … Who are we? How are we defining beauty? What do we see as beautiful?”

Still others don’t even acknowledge their lack of makeup to emphasize that this is normal (still an act of feminism, though less overt). But captions aside, when these women display their natural beauty and show they’re comfortable with how they look and lend their spectacular photo-framing skills to the task, the resulting photos are definitely worth seeing. Click through the slideshow above for 34 stunning Instagrams of celebrities without makeup that more than prove this point. Prepare to feel awed and seriously inspired to join the come-as-you-are beauty movement.

Cordelia Tai is a freelance staff writer at theFashionSpot. Her work has appeared on Refinery29 and the Huffington Post, among others. Ultimately, she plans to segue into fashion merchandising so that she can (judiciously) online shop for a living.